remembering president george h.w. bush. memorials to honor the late president will take place later this week from texas to washington and back. it marks a rare bit of unity as leaders from both parties pay tribute to a president known for reaching across the aisle. a temporary trade truce with china. president trump says he's struck a deal to halt any new trade tariffs from beijing, at least until next year. and president trump's former fixer michael cohen is hoping to avoid prison time at his upcoming sentencing. that's just one of several updates to the mueller investigation.

♪ good morning. it's monday, december 3rd. i'm ayman mohyeldin. >> i am back after 60 weeks being gone. >> we have happy to have you back. we begin this week with some sad news. the memorial to celebrate george h.w. bush's life will span from houston to washington and back to his final resting place. president trump sent air force one to houston for what will be called special air mission 41, carrying bush's casket to washington this afternoon. bush will lie in state in the rotunda at the capitol until wednesday morning when a funeral will take place at the national cathedral. then president bush will take a final flight to houston. a funeral train will carry bush

to his final resting place at his presidential library. he will be laid alongside his barbara and their daughter robin. president's clinton, bush and barack obama shared their memories of bush. here's some of what they said. >> the mission was not george h.w. bush. the mission was how do we serve the united states, how do we help the united states, how do we make the united states better. one of the jobs is to strengthen the institution of the presidency, bring honor to the office. that clearly george h.w. bush did. >> what people don't appreciate fully even within his own party is the degree to which he had to land the plane when the berlin wall comes down. you have chaos potentially in the former soviet union and

russia and uncertainty in europe. all those things could have gone haywire at any point. the restraint, the caution, the lack of spiking the football that they showed was, i think,en enormous achievement. this could be a busy week for special counsel robert mueller and the ongoing russia investigation. mueller is considering bringing new charges against president trump's former campaign chairman paul manafort for allegedly violating his plea agreement. at a hearing on friday, the special counsel said that prosecutors are weighing new criminal charges for manafort which could potentially include obstruction of justice. prosecutors have been ordered to file a new report detailing how manafort breached his agreement by december 7th. and in the case of former national security advisor michael flynn, federal prosecutors will file a sentencing memorandum which

should not only detail flynn's lies to federal agents but any other bad acts or crimes, if they exist, that flynn may have committed and have gone uncharged. it is possible that the memo could be filed under seal. federal prosecutor wills also likely file two sentencing memorandums for michael cohen this week, detailing his tax evasion, his payments to women in violation of campaign finance law and his lies to congress. president trump is back in the u.s. after spending friday and saturday in argentina for the g20 summit. on the flight to buenos aires trump cancelled his scheduled sitdown with russia's vladimir putin citing the latest russian aggression aimed at ukraine as the, quote, sole reason. the president notably walked path putin without offering a handshake or other greeting during the summit's class photo. however, the two leaders did share an informal conversation during a cultural dinner for the

world leaders on friday night. putin later revealed that he also spoke with trump on saturday on the situation with ukraine. putin said i answered his questions about the incident in the black sea he has his position, i have my own. we stayed in our own positions. james mattis criticized vladimir putin over the weekend, ak u accusing the russian president of meddling in the u.s. midterms. >> there is no doubt the relationship has worsened. he tried again to muck around in our elections this last month and we are seeing a continued effort along those lines. mr. putin is clearly a slow learner. he is not recognizing that what he is doing is actually creating the animosity against his people. he's not acting in the best

interest of the russian people. and he is actual ly causing nat to rearm and to strengthen the democracy's stance, the unified stance of all the democracies together. >> the "wall street journal" has reviewed excerpted from the cia assessment on the murder of jamal kashoggi, which reveals some of the evidence linking saudi arabia's crown prince to the killing. it includes at least 11 text messages mohammed bin salman sent to his closest advisor who oversaw the team that killed kashoggi just hours before and after the murder on october 2nd. in addition, the cia says it seems to foreshadow the launch against kashoggi. mbs told associates that if efforts to convince kashoggi to return to saudi arabia failed, they could lure him outside of saudi arabia. the assessment states that the

cia has medium to high confidence that the crown prince personally targeted and probably ordered kashoggi's death, although it adds we lack direct reporting of the crown prince issuing a kill order. >> the cia's judgment is based on mbs's tight control of the kingdom and the operatives in the murder. adding, it's highly unlikely they would act without his authorization. president trump is quick to dismiss the assessment, saying it did not offer a definitive conclusion. meanwhile saudi arabia media is reporting that mbs and trump had a, quote, friendly meeting at the g20. trump later told reporters he had no discussion with mbs, although a white house official tells nbc news the two exchanged pleasantries.

mbs did share quite the enthusiastic greeting with vice president. president trump and president xi agreed to a cease fire in the ongoing trade war with china. president trump is holding off on increasing tariff rates on 200 billion dollar worth of chinese goods for the next 90 days. those rates were set to increase from 10% to 25% on january 1st. trump is also holding off on his threat to install tariffs on the remaining 2$267 billion worth o goods china exports to the united states. china has not yet agreed upon a very substantial amount of u.s. goods from the agricultural, energy and industrial sectors. trump told the "wall street

journal" last week it was highly unlikely he would heed that request. the white house says that if negotiations for a broader trade deal are not fruitful by the end of that 90 days, trump will increase the tariffs. in addition, china will designate fentanyl as a controlled substance, meaning that anyone caught selling it to the u.s. could face china's maximum penalty under law, which is death. the d.e.a. has said the chinese chemical companies are one of the most predominant forces of the illicit forms of the drugs in the u.s. >> let's bring in political reporter from the daily beast betsy woodruff. let's start with the passing of george h.w. bush. a rare moment of unity, as we

said. what kind of reaction are you hearing from the political world about the passing of the former president? >> one of the big questions has been the way that president trump is going to respond to this very sad news. we remember when senator mccain passed away, it ended upturning into a moment of division because of the way the president responded. he didn't go to the funeral. he telegraphed a certain level of animosity and hostility to mccain even after his death. we also know that the bush family would not like to see the funeral of george h.w. bush become sort of a rallying moment against the incumbent president. trump himself has said he will be at that funeral, despite the fact that publicly and privately he's lambasted the bush family, even criticizing aides for having worked under george w. bush's administration. one of the big questions is does trump maintain the decorum and

seriousness he's exhibited thus far in the wake of the passing of george h.w. bush. >> what do you think the significance is of president trump now attending this funeral? >> i think what it shows is that he's been behaving in a way that one would traditionally anticipate a president to behave. he also seems to have potentially benefitted from the timing of george h.w. bush's passing. he cancelled a press conference that would have occurred at the g20 summit in argentina, potentially dodging challenging questions related to the way he handled conversations with russian and chinese leaders. that said, there's a lot of praise within the beltway and outside for trump's measured and calm approach to the passing of george h.w. bush. still ahead, new questions about acting attorney general matthew whittaker's involvement in a company accused of making millions of dollars from

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show me decorating shows. this is staying connected with xfinity to make moving... simple. easy. awesome. stay connected while you move with the best wifi experience and two-hour appointment windows. click, call or visit a store today. welcome back, everybody. new details emerging about acting attorney general matthew whittaker and his involvement in a company that was shut down last year by federal regulators over allegations of scamming investors. according to reports, documents released by the federal trade commission show that whittaker had numerous e-mail exchanges with the ceo of world patent marketing in 2015, focused on customers' fraud complaints. whittaker was a paid advisor at the time for the company. the e-mail exchanges indicate that whittaker had some advance notice about the issues that eventually led to the government charges of fraud against the company and an fbi investigation into the matter.

as the "wall street journal" points out, the documents show that ftc employees who investigated world patent marketing were anxious when they received a voicemail from whittaker informing the agency he had taken a high level job. one wrote, you're not going to believe this, matt whittaker is now chief of staff to the attorney general of the united states. >> acting attorney general mat whittaker has also been critical of the man who tapped him for the job. according to the "washington post," the acting a.g. has criticized trump on numerous occasions while appearing on tv and radio as a political comment ta commentator. he said that trump should make his tax returns public and that trump was self-serving in the way he fired former fbi director

james comey. whittaker said neither trump nor hillary clinton were very good options for commander in chief, saying both candidates were unlikely. republican mark harris's victory is still not certified as officials investigation hundreds of absentee ballots. officials voted to hold a hearing to investigate claims of numerous irregularities and fraudulent activities related to absentee ballots in some of the rural areas in the district. the associated press announced on friday that it had retracted its call that harris won the race and said it was treating the board's action as if the race had proceeded to a recount.

there were concerned about people improperly collecting mail-in ballots and people receiving mail-in ballots they did not request. registered republicans only account for 19% of the county's accepted absentee ball lots. in a noboeighboring county a la amount of mail-in ballots were not returned. harris has asked the board to expedite the investigation. it's time for my favorite part of the show. >> bill? >> the always accurate bill karins. >> when are you going to take over solo? >> we'll talk about it. >> welcome back. this morning we are watching strong storms in southern georgia and northern florida. over the weekend illinois got hit. they had some 20 tornados reported.

a lot of them happened during the daylight hours. there was consider damage. this is some drone video from above. look at this. very impressive. we did not have any fatalities from those tornados, so that was one piece of good news. pretty rare start to december in illinois. one tornado warning and flash flood warnings near valdosta. savannah and charleston, you need your umbrellas too right now. tallahassee and apalachicola and panama city under the flash flood watch. the heaviest rain will set up later today just over gainesville and south of i-10 and into the jacksonville area. the eastern seaboard will have some foggy conditions earlier. it's in the 50s today.

enjoy that. just some snow showers around chicago and the great lakes. winter's not far away on the calendar. but on the meteorologist cycle winter is considered december, january and february. we're expecting warmer than normal conditions much of the west. as far as precipitation we're heading towards an el nino type winter which usually features southern storms. there's been some buzz about an east coast snowstorm next weekend. it's going to follow this trend. >> wait for the details. still ahead, all the

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he's got a man wide open. it's caught for the touchdown! >> odell beckham jr. throws for that touchdown. giants just eking it out in over time. those were some of the biggest plays from around the nfl yesterday. in green bay yesterday's loss is the last for the packers with mike mccarthy at the helm. fired after 13 seasons as head coach, the offensive coordinator

joe philbin will serve as interim head coach there. the steelers hosting the chargers on sunday night football, taking an early lead in this one. heading to halftime with a 16-point lead following antonio brown's 28-yard touchdown reception at the end of the second quarter. but l.a. comes out charged up after the break keeping pittsburgh out of the end zone into the fourth quarter while taking over the lead with three consecutive touchdowns including desmond king's 73-yard punt return. the steelers tie the game at about the 4-minute mark. the chargers win by a field goal in this one. final score 33-30. in the nba a trash talking fan got the best of the clippers

patrick beverly who was ejected in the fourth quarter after throwing a ball at the fan along the sideline. beverly told reporters he reacted after the spectator made an expletive laced remark about his mother. the mavericks beat the clippers 114-110. i guess it's kind of hard when a fan is trash talking your mother. >> there have been some of those brawls where players have gone into the crowd. there's no mace fplace for it. still ahead, the president's former fixer is hoping to avoid prison time after his plea deal in the mueller probe. what are the chances that he'll be granted leniency. plus, what we're learning about the final hours of george h.w. bush and how he's being remembered by his family.

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♪ welcome back, everybody. it is the bottom of the hour. let's start with the morning's top stories. the president's former attorney and fixer michael cohen is asking a federal judge to allow him to avoid prison time when he is sentenced later this month. it follows cohen's second guilty plea, the most recent for lying to congress about efforts to build a trump tower in moscow. cohen's lawyer wrote, quote, in the context of this raw, full

bore attack by the most powerful person in the u.s., michael, formerly a confidant and advisor to mr. trump resigned and voluntarily cooperated even before he was charged. cohen's lawyers also noted their client could have chosen not to cooperate and instead position himself for a pardon on clemency. his attorneys also say he will continue to contribute to the investigation. meanwhile, new statements from vladimir putin's press secretary are contradicting what he said in the past about conversations over a trump tour in moscow. according to the "washington post," he said in august of 2017, that e-mails from michael cohen about the project were left, quote, unanswered. he appears now to be changing his story since being confronted with cohen's guilty plea. two e-mails and a phone call did in fact take place between michael cohen and russian

officials. he says he's never had any personal conversations with cohen. former fbi director james comey has reached a deal to testify behind closed doors about investigations into hillary clinton's e-mail server and whether donald trump's campaign colluded with russia. comey had been subpoenaed to testify privately before the house judiciary committee and oversight committees but filed to block the subpoena saying he wanted to testify publicly. comey has now agreed to sit down for a closed door deposition on friday after republicans pledged to provide him with a full transcript of his testimony afterwards. comey tweeted yesterday, grateful for a fair hearing from judge. hard to protect my rights without being in contempt, which i don't believe in. so we'll sit in the dark but republicans agree i'm free to talk when done and transcript released in 24 hours.

this is the closest i can get to public testimony. >> let's talk about this closed door hearing, betsy, with jim comey. what should we expect to hear from this, especially since we're going to see that transcript 24 hours later? >> there are basically two different baskets of questions that i'm anticipating. republicans are going to want to do an investigation into the genesis of the russia probe. they're going to want to ask about james comey's part in reviewing the dossier that was circulated at high levels of the american government but was not the cause of the russia investigation getting started. a number of house republicans are interested in trying to damage his credibility and trying to cast doubt on his v

veracity in former congressional testimonies. democrats are going to want to ask comey about the way he made his decisions involving discussing hillary clinton during the campaign. hillary clinton has said she believes part of the reason donald trump defeated her because was comey went public, violating fbi norms and procedures in doing so. comey has found himself in this unusual position of having upset nearly everyone, which is hard to do but not impossible. >> it's rare when both candidates in a presidential race dislike the fbi director. let me ask you about michael cohen for a moment. i know he's hoping to avoid jail time after his second guilty plea last week. but could his past lies seriously unravel any chances of leniency by the judge? are we expecting the judge to be at all lenient given what he has done? >> michael cohen has cold a

cornucopia of lies during his time in public life. the only ones that are legally significant are the ones he told to congress and any he may or may not have told the federal investigators working under special counsel robert mueller. lying itself is usually not a crime, which is fantastic news for people who work in the building behind me unless you're talking to members of congress under oath or you're speaking with folks from the fbi. now, michael cohen has conceded that he did lie to congress when he testified about the nature of his negotiations on behalf of the trump organization during the presidential campaign with people in the kremlin about a potential trump tower moscow. that's what the judge is going to be looking at. it's also important to remember that it's very unusual and pretty rare for prosecutors to charge people with lying to congress. so there's not a huge body of recent precedent as to how federal judges handle this charge and the penalties

associated with it. >> it is going to be a busy week with all the developments set to take place this week. democratic senator kamala harris says she will decide whether she will run for president in 2020 by the end of this year. the junior california senator said, quote, it's a very serious decision. over the holiday i will make that decision with my family. harris also said that she is aware of the challenges that a barrier breaking campaign will include, saying, let's be honest, it's going to be ugly. when you break things it is painful and you get cut and you bleed. harris joins what is expected to be a crowded field of democrats such as joe biden, elizabeth warren and julian castro.

president bush's secretary of state james baker recounted part of president bush's final day. take a listen. >> i went over there the day he died early in the morning. he'd had three days he hadn't gotten out of bed and he's had a very bad thursday. this last friday i went over there at 7:15 in the morning. i live right near. one of his aides said, mr. president, secretary baker is here. he looked up. he opened both eyes. he looked at me. he said, where are we going? i said we're going to heaven. he said that's where i want to go. >> earlier baker shared with the "new york times" what were president bush's last words on friday night. his son president george w. bush told him over speakerphone that he had been a wonderful dad and

that he loved him. i love you too, bush told his son. bush talked about his relationship with his father last night on 60 minutes. what did he say to you when you were president? >> i love you. and as corny as that sounds to some, it is the most important words you can hear in life. you don't hear a lot of people say i love you when you're president. [ laughter ] >> still a sense of humor there. >> absolutely. they definitely had a special bond. still ahead, after more than half a century qatar announces it's pulling out of opec. >> details on the diplomatic dispute that led to the decision and what it could mean for the price of crude. plus, bill karins back with another check on the forecast, including the potential for more snow.

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welcome back. after 57 years, qatar is leaving opec. the announcement comes after months of rising tensions between qatar and saudi arabia. days before a key meeting of the 15-country bloc of oil what's behind this decision and will it affect sliding oil prices? >> i've spoken to a couple of analyst this s this morning. it wasn't a major surprise for the industry. there's a political standoff ongoing between saudi arabia and qatar. to begin with, qatar were not producing that much oil anyway. they're exporting anywhere from 500,000 to 600,000 barrels a way. we have an owe popec meeting co up in a few days time. the cartel will agree to cut production by 1 to 1.5 million

barrels per day. qatar did say this morning that the decision was strategic and not politically motivated and that their intention is to focus on their number one export which is liquified natural gas. on the back of that, we're seeing a big spike in oil market this is morning, up 3.5%. generally today is a very good day for markets. chinese equities up 2.5% after the so-called trade truce announced over the weekend between the u.s. and china on the sidelines of g20. european markets also up 2%. u.s. up much higher as well. everyone is saying the ducks are aligned for a santa rally into the end of the year now. let's turn to bill karins now, who i'm sure has commentary on the santa rally. >> the bulls, the bears and the

santas. let's get into the possibility of this east coast storm. maybe you heard about it. this morning, heavy rain and thunderstorms into north florida and georgia. in order to get a winter event you have to have cold air. we have cold air coming down from the north. middle of the week temperatures chilly, 40s and 50s. it's not 30s, so it's kind of borderline. today snow showers in the great lakes and northern new england. then on wednesday here comes the coast to coast storm. coming into california, more additional rain for them, mountain snow. there's the chilly air in place to the north. by the time we get to friday, the storm really develops down here over texas. the northern edge of this may just be cold enough for snow and ice in the ordinary reason areas. we'll have to wait to see how it all played out. then the possibility is that this tracks toward the east coast. let's play it out here.

as we go through friday morning, remember the pink is the ice, the blue is the snow and yellow is heavy rain and thunderstorms. by the time we get into saturday, the back edge hints at some snow in oklahoma, northern half of arkansas. then it may not cobe cold enoug the appalachians. the big question is how far north will it make it? right now it's looking more southern through the mountains of the appalachians maybe a little bit here into virginia and north carolina. as of now, new england does look safe from this one. this looks to be, if anything, a mid atlantic threat. we'll update it throughout the week. still ahead, the advice one ousted republican congresswoman is giving to the gop about the voters the party needs to focus on. plus ryan zinke and one top democrat lawmaker as the back and forth quickly gets personal.

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simple. easy. awesome. click or visit a retail store today. welcome back. the top democrat on the house natural resources committee says it is time for interior secretary ryan zinke to step down over the ethics scandal surrounding his tenure. a congressman from arizona says zinke is unfit to serve, saying his conduct in office and

president trump's neglect in setting ethical standards for his own cabinet have made it unavoidable. zinke tweeted a statement it's hard for him to think straight from the bottom of the bottle. this is coming from a man who used $50,000 of tax money to cover up his drunken behavior. zinke included the hashtag tune in for more. according to a report, the congressman was there on friday when zinke fired off his tweet. the reference was likely from a 2015 agreement. the congressman brushed off the

dig by zinke issuing a statement that read the american people know who i'm here to serve and they know in whose interests i'm acting. they don't know the same about secretary zinke. republican leaders across texas are asking local republicans to stop their attempt to oust a muslim man from his leadership position. members of the tarrant county gop began their rush to remove shaffe after he was named vice-chairman this summer. the reliably red county shifted blue in the senate race. shaffe a trauma surgeon who served on the south lake city council is one of certainly leaders being targeted by the gop according to the star telegram. the others include the party chair who appointed him and two women, one of who is is in an interfaith marriage with a muslim man. george p. bush are calling for

county leadership to reject the effort to remove him condemning it as disgraceful, unamerican and unhelpful to the party. a report on whether to remove him from his position is scheduled for january 10th. and utah congresswoman mia love is calling on the republican party to be more inclusive. love the first and only black female republican to serve in congress just lost her bid for reelection. she told the washington examiner that republicans, quote, need to do a better job than just talking about how great our policies are. we need to actually let people know that we care. they need to like republicans. she adds, quote, the messenger actually counts and the policies aren't enough. love said the party needs to use more black members to lead on issues like minority outreach and immigration. she says that she met with the president after his remarks about s hole countries and told him, quote, i can help you when you're talking immigration, you should probably have me in the

room instead of trying to negotiate with dick durbin and bob god lat. axios' jim vandehei has a look at the one big thing. coming up on "morning joe" the next steps of bob mueller's russia probe. the new details on what could be another busy week for the special counsel and the potential new charges he could bring as president trump's legal team once again tries to undermine mueller. plus remembering the life of the 41st president of the united states, george h.w. bush. nbc news's andrea mitchell, historian jon meachum, richard loose and former deputy chief of staff andy card all look back at the legacy of the leader and war hero as the country prepares to pay its final respects to him. "morning joe" just moments away.

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joining us from washington with a look at axios a.m. co-founder and ceo of axios jim vandehei. jim, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> talk to us about the one big thing today. >> the one big thing should be that the green bay packers fired coach mccarthy but unfortunately we don't have a sports newsletter yet. we take a look at robert mueller and the tantalizing bread crumbs that he is already leaving out in the public record. everyone talks about the mueller report, the truth is there's 293 pages out there already from these indictments that we've seen, mike allen, garrett graft who is a robert mueller biographer who is doing some work for us, take a look at some of those bread crumbs and how it seems like in these indictments he's always you putting in these very specific details as if to say i know a lot more than you think that i know and almost to send a signal to potential witnesses and others about the level of detail, the level of infiltration he has in the different aspects of this investigation. every time one of these

indictments comes out it always has way more detail, has new developments that nobody knows. we talk so much about the probe, but still so much of the coverage is guessing versus knowing. only he knows. >> so let me ask you about some of those big picture stuff. you mentioned the 293 documents already out in the public. it seems to suggest that there is more coming. when you take a big picture approach what are some of the specifics that you see maybe in the pipeline? >> it's interesting, when he talks about do you remember that famous comment that the president made when he was a candidate saying, hey, russia, if you have those 30,000 e-mails, please -- >> we remember. >> i'd love to get my hands on them. in the indictment the very next day according to the indictment mueller knows that it was russian government officials, that it was the next day, that it was late at night, government officials who typically work in the day, late at night doing this fishing exercise to be able to get the e-mails that donald trump was calling for. there's another indictment later

where he talks about one of these russian troll farms and says there's three people involved, i indicted two, makes it clear he knows who the third person was, every person that that person met with it's almost a signal that, hey, this person could be cooperating or maybe i have a secret mole inside that operation, i know a lot more than you think i know. >> so you're also writing on axios that this could be a defining month for the trump presidency. why do you think that? >> i mean, donald trump is never going to humble himself, but reality is going to um had bl him. you saw this in the last 24 hours. he has had to delay his fight on a government shutdown, the more you push that into next year when democrats have control the less power that he has, and the reason the shutdown matters is this is the fight where he thinks he can finally get the funding to build the wall and everyone is telling him you are not going to get the funding that you need to build the wall. then there is the china deal, big deal on the weekend where there is basically a pause in what was a pretty red hot trade war with china and now the

president goes into the g20 meeting, walks away and says, listen, we are going to have a three-month pause, we are going to try to hammer out details in the interim the chinese are going to buy lots of products for us. the truth is the chinese have been saying they would buy lots of products from us for a long time, it's the more fundamental measures, this idea that they steal u.s. technology, that they have a state-controlled government that doesn't play by the same rules that we play by that are much harder to solve and are still left unsolved. >> speaking of the president's trade authority and obviously we know he just revamped the nafta and nafta 2.0, the u.s./mexico/canada agreement that has to go through congress. i know you've been reported on a possible check on the president's trade authority that could be coming down the pipeline. what have you learned? >> senator chuck grassley a farmer himself in iowa cold told us that they are looking now at trying to limit the president's authority to keep using this national security power to be able to impose tariffs on

countries like china. because it's having an appreciable affect in his case on farmers, but obviously on the economy as a whole. look at the futures today, they're already bouncing up almost 500 points because of the concerns of the overuse of tariffs as a punitive measure in these fights that the president has. so republicans have had it, they're feeling the political pressure and their constituents are feeling the pain. if you are a soybean farmer in iowa or anywhere else you felt tremendous pain. the auto manufacturers, tremendous pain. this affects markets, it affects jobs. >> jim vandehei live in washington, d.c., as always, thanks. we will be reading axios in just a bit. go to sign up.ax keys.com. that does it for us on this monday morning. "morning joe," everybody, starts right now. what is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea, a new world order,

where diverse nations are